Shy
by FemaleSpock
Summary: Rocket teaches Tia how to play Pool. Set during early S1 before they leave Akillian for Genesis Stadium. Rocket/Tia. For indecisive-ays.


Shy

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction. **

**Indecisive-ays' birthday was a few days ago and she gave this prompt – so this one's for her! Hope you like it!**

She'd been watching him play for the last thirty minutes and despite her inexperience with the game, she could tell that he was _good._ Rocket just seemed be able to exactly calculate, precisely, the best way of getting the balls into the holes – she supposed it was the same skill that made him such an excellent passer.

Poor D'jok had been thoroughly thrashed; he hadn't started out too badly but he'd gotten increasingly frustrated by Rocket's consistent skill – he'd ended up practically attacking the balls with the cue in the end (Tia noted that it didn't seem to make for a good strategy).

"Do you want to play?" Rocket asked, gesturing to the pool table.

By this time, the rest of the team had dispersed throughout Planet Akillian: to watch the holo-tv or to get another drink (D'jok looked like he needed one after his defeat).

"I don't really know how," she admitted. Sure, she'd picked up a couple of things from watching the game but overall it remained a mystery. "I've never played before."

"Really?"

"Do you really think my parents let me play pool? Or even hang out with any other children my own age that weren't snooty politicians' children?" Her tone was lighter than it might have been mere weeks ago – she could afford to laugh at her peculiar childhood now that they had finally come around to seeing things her way thanks to Callie Mystic.

"I can teach you! I mean…if you'd like." His initial confidence dissolved into shyness (as usual).

She considered it, taking a little longer than necessary just to watch him squirm and blush – she imagined he'd be pulling a similar expression if he ever actually got up the courage to ask her on an actual date.

"Alright," she finally replied, smiling.

First he gave her a run down of the rules and proper terminology; it wasn't that hard to grasp, she had already picked up bits of it and her career was in sports, after all.

"You ready to give it a go?" he asked, after giving her a couple of demonstrations of how best to 'pot' (this was one of the terms she had learnt from him) the balls.

She nodded, picking up the cue and rubbing it in the blue chalk (apparently this was what you were supposed to do), lining the cue up carefully – she squinted hard in concentration as she searched for her target, slowly but surely making a motion with the cue – the ball meandered way off the course she had anticipated and promptly stopped, clanking softly against the other balls.

"Ugh," she breathed out, in frustration – it was a lot harder than Rocket had made it look.

"Try it again." Rocket's voice was patient; evidently he had expected it to go like this.

Tia nodded to herself, in determination, she was a professional footballer – she wasn't going to let a simple game of pool defeat her (Aarch's best pep talks about not giving up and practicing rung through her head).

She gave it a good try for the next ten minutes, seemingly making little to no progress – the balls never seemed to go anywhere near where she intended. It just seemed that she was better at kicking balls that manoeuvring them with wooden sticks. She could see why D'jok was having such a hard time of it before.

The whole time, Rocket was stood there, watching her with an intensity that didn't improve her performance; she was sure that someone else would have laughed at her incompetence but the smile on his face looked more indulgent than mocking.

"Uh, Tia," he finally interjected, after what felt like her millionth failed attempt. "You mind if I help you out a little?"

She sighed in defeat. "Yeah, I think I could use some help."

He slowly walked over to where she was standing, getting in really close behind her, until she could feel his breath on her neck. She could feel her face start to colour; all thoughts seeming to leave her mind. He snaked his arm around so that it was resting on top of hers, the heat from his hands warming her.

"I'm just going to guide you through it, okay?" he murmured.

She just managed to make a sound to signify her assent; she'd seen this kind of thing happen in cheesy romance chick-flicks, where the guy helps the girl learn something via much physical contact, but she didn't think it happened in real life.

Rocket moved the cue and her arm with it, in a fluid motion, hitting the ball and potting it straight into the pocket.

"How did you find that?"

"Yeah, it was good, but I think I could do with trying it again," she replied, smiling a little to herself.

They continued like that for a while before they were interrupted by a shout up from Micro-ice.

"Guys, we better head out to the Academy or Aarch will have our hides, we'll meet you outside!"

Tia spun around so that she was facing Rocket, his arm still around her, her face so close to his. He just stared at her, the tension rising in the air – all the films told her that this was the moment that they would kiss.

She waited; Rocket stared down at his shoes.

"I guess we should head out then," he said, awkwardly. He let go of her, quickly turning away and grabbing his coat. She sighed and did the same.

Still, he may not have kissed her but she had managed to learn something about Pool – that was something at least.

**Hope you enjoyed it, Indi! It was pretty odd going back to write this version of Rocket (as opposed to massivecheater!Rocket or Netherball!Rocket) but it was a lot of fun! I looked up the differences between Pool and Billiards etc. and I figured that Pool was the one that I had played before (for like ten minutes, haha) so I'd go with that one. I kept it vague though because a lot of specifics kind of boggled my mind (at least any mistakes in this fic can be attributed to Akillian pool being different to the one we have on Earth XD). Reviews are always very welcome!**


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